on opposite ends | vsoo

OBSTACLES AND DISTRACTIONS

CHAPTER FIVE.

The smoke billowing from the ruined house of Choi Seungcheol could be seen all the way up the mountaintop, coloring the blue skies gray.

Jisoo can't breathe. She's panting hard and she's down on all fours, shaking from head to toe. Is this what death felt like?

She tries to drink in her surroundings. Soil, rocks, trees, sky, the village down below her, distant screams and wailing. She tries to stand up and wills herself not to faint. At least she's not dead yet even though she really thought she would have been done for back there with Jimin's spell. She escaped narrowly but why was she here on top of the mountain again? She feels dizzy and the world around her tilts.

Amidst her current state, she notices she's not alone. A few feet away from her, a tall and towering hooded figure materializes.

She freezes on the ground and sucks in a sharp breath. No.

Jisoo fumbles for her wand just as the cloaked figure pushes its hood back to reveal a face staring at her with rock hard eyes.

"You're supposed to be the Ministry's so-called best Auror?" The unfamiliar man says gruffly, advancing towards Jisoo who was barely able to stand up. "Well, no wonder they haven't been able to stop this nasty business with Vol -"

"Don't say the name." Jisoo coughs out. She wipes the sweat gathering on her forehead and tries to calm herself. She was rattled, taken by surprise at the ambush set up for her but she needed to get it together.

The unknown man raises a sharp eyebrow at her. "What?" His voice is like steel.

Jisoo narrows her eyes at him and hopes she's putting on an intimidating face but she doubts it. She feels like barfing any second now. "Don't say the name. It's taboo." When she's able to slowly pull her wits together, she continues to eye the man in front of her. He was dressed in a dark cloak but gray clothes peeked from underneath it. He didn't look like anyone she knew from the Ministry or even from the Office. Not an Auror? He could be one of Jinyoung's accomplices keeping tabs on her, just to make sure she was properly doing her job.

Didn't Jinyoung trust her enough?

No, he did. He does. He trusts her too much actually, she almost screwed over the whole operation. She could have been killed back there.

"Death Eaters will hunt you down the moment his name will leave your lips," she says, her voice much more steady now but her mind was still everywhere. She was still trying to process what had happened: she had been in the house, Jimin had thrown a spell or a curse towards her, she had apparated out of there just before it could hit her. This man had apparated her out of there just in time. He saved her. She tenses. "So if you value your life, shut your mouth."

The man lets out a snort and then a coy smirk. "Well, feisty little thing aren't you?"